SKM 2021 – scientific programme
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DY: Fachverband Dynamik und Statistische Physik
DY 13: Focus session: Nonlinear Dynamics of the Heart II (organized by Markus Bär, Stefan Luther and Ulrich Parlitz)
DY 13.3: Talk
Thursday, September 30, 2021, 14:15–14:30, H2
Spatiotemporal correlation of cardiac tissue and its variation in response to temperature — •Alessandro Loppini1, Alessio Gizzi1, Christian Cherubini1, Flavio Fenton2, and Simonetta Filippi1 — 1Unit of Nonlinear Physics and Mathematical Modeling, Campus Bio-Medico University of Rome, 00128 Rome, Italy — 2School of Physics, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Complex emergent dynamics are at the basis of life-threatening cardiac arrhythmias, including tachycardia and fibrillation. In the past years, a large number of studies have shown that such irregular rhythms in myocardium electrical oscillations are anticipated by cardiac alternans, are supported by nonlinearities, tissue heterogeneity, and anisotropy, and are further shaped by the mechanical and thermal state of the tissue. In this context, a comprehensive understanding of the appearance and development of impaired rhythms, starting from the underlying spatiotemporal dynamics, is required to prevent cardiac failure. In this contribution, we discuss a novel correlation analysis of cardiac activation maps accounting for thermal feedback, showing its application on canine ventricular tissues monitored via optical mapping. Specifically, we define a characteristic length able to describe the emergent synchronization of the tissue and analyze its variations at alternans onset and during their development at different temperatures. Computed results show that the characteristic length is significantly lower in the alternans regime compared to physiological rhythms. Also, we further show that thermal-induced changes in the underlying dynamic result in corresponding variations of the characteristic length.